WIP Pinevale

R Soul · Feb 23, 2011

Pinevale, in the north-west of England, is a disused WW2 airfield. In 1972 local landowner Rupert Sarringham commissioned the conversion of the derelict site into a race track, having been impressed by a recent visit to Silverstone.

Pinevale covers a smaller area than Silverstone, so the track was made with national and club racing in mind. In the mid 1980s the track fell out of use, but was reopened in 1996 after resurfacing and rebuilding to get the track back up to standard.

(video can be played at 720p)

There are still things to do; advert billboards, sort out the track intersections etc.

Pangaea · Feb 23, 2011

Looking good rsoul

Cant wait to play now that i finally have rfactor

Raido · Feb 24, 2011

Nice.

I thought I knew just about all obscure tracks in England, but this one I'd never even heard of (unless it was used under another monicker earlier).

R Soul · Mar 8, 2011

I should point out that it's not a real track. It's based on the perimeter road of Woodvale airfield, which is still in use for training (I inadvertently left the real name on the pit building). It's not the exact same layout. The original straights aren't quite long enough for high powered cars, so I modified it in a few places. The first straight has been extended and the first corner changed from two corners in quick succession to a single opening corner, similar to Copse at Silverstone. The second straight was also extended, leading to a tighter corner which then leads back to the original layout.

The back straight used to lead into a sweeping left hand bend, similar to the original Abbey. That would have lead immediately into a medium speed right hander. I put in the chicane for two reasons - add another overtaking spot and add realism. Of course in a sim we can have fast corners with no runoff, but I want my track to be believable. In the real world they'd either add acres of runoff or slow things down a bit, so I chose the latter because of the overtaking opportunity it provides. The exit of the right hander is still fun because the the track has a couple of slight kinks which mean that in some cars, too much acceleration will put you on the grass.

The penultimate change was to the last corner. It used to be two corners very close to each other, with the second being quite a bit tighter. I found it very frustrating so I changed it into a constant radius corner.

The final change was to the pitlane entrance. Until very recently the entrance was after the last corner, but that would have had pitting cars getting in the way of drivers who were trying to accelerate, so I moved the entrance to before the last corner.

With the exception of the last corner, you can see the changes I've made. Hopefully that creates the impression of a real track that has been modified over time.

R Soul · Sep 18, 2011

bump!

Here is another preview:

A few months ago I took a break to focus on another hobby that needed my attention. When that finished in August, I resumed work on my track. I've put in adverts, mostly for fake companies such as Regent Lubricants and Chamberlain Car Insurance. There are some track markings, especially into the two tightest corners.

I then finally used 3DSimEd to properly merge the tracks. It's a lengthy process, so I actually exported the to-be-merged pieces to Blender and did it all there. Much quicker, although I had to use the 3ds format which can't handle texture blending, so I still had to use 3DSimEd to weld the terrain vertices to the track, but that was straightforward. I also used Blender to cap my walls! Very satisfying to get rid of the holes.

I then applied a cube map to the the pit building and the random office block of mystery that you see just after it. I don't know whether or not anyone will notice but it had to be done.

Now I just need to sort out my AIW the AI can drive properly. The curve in BTB can be a bit unwieldy, so I'm going to have a look at the official AIW editor. I also need to examine the fuel consumption so that the game knows how many laps you can do for a given fuel load.

R Soul · Oct 23, 2011

Since the last update, I used ISI's editor to do the AIW file. It was a bit tricky at times buy I eventually got it sorted.

Right now I'm adding invisible collision walls which are high enough to ensure crashing cars don't escape the confines of the barriers. When that's finished I'll figure out how to put things in .mas files, and then my track will be ready for testing.

R Soul · Dec 13, 2011

For a while this track has been sitting around not doing anything, so I may as well ask for a few people to do a private test and provide feedback. I think the main area to consider is the AI behaviour. I'm not a very good driver so there's a limit to how much testing I can do with them.

The issue is further hampered by the .plr file having its own AI variables, so my aim is for the AI to be comparable to other tracks. If I get to that stage, user-defined AI tweaks should not leave the AI too strong or too weak at my track.

If you are willing, I will send you a download link via PM. Issues can be discussed in this thread or privately, depending on your preferences.

Daniel Higgins · Dec 17, 2011

Ill be more than happy to help

any particular car to test? Or type of car?

EDIT: Also where is the track download?

R Soul · Dec 17, 2011

Thanks for your offer. The download link will be PM'd (I don't want to release it publicly just yet). Type of car? Just try a variety from what you already have. I've tested with Historic GT, and found that old low-grip cars tend to have trouble with the kerbs, but a few spins makes the racing more interesting. One of the AI spins can be seen on the WIP page at rfactor central:
http://www.rfactorcentral.com/detail.cfm?ID=Pinevale

Another thing to check is the pitlane. Compared to other tracks, it is too hard to get in and out of the pit spots while surrounded by other cars? I've had a bit of trouble but I don't know if it's an operator error or a the pitlane design.

R Soul · Dec 29, 2011

Enough waiting. I'm going to upload this track and then put it on rfactor central, and nogrip. That will involve more waiting, so there will be more than enough.

Erwin Greven · Jan 2, 2012

Those airfields can be used for building (fantasy) tracks perfectly. I have found two airfields called Predannack GB and Bromma SE which both can be used for race tracks.